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In recent days, weeks even, many of us -- myself included -- had expected that by the trade deadline, Alex Rios and Neal Cotts would be dealt to a contending team that, hopefully, would overpay in the mold of either talent or draft picks. Cotts, for sure, seemed to be destined to head out of Texas to some contending team.

In the end, however, it seems that teams didn't like Alex Rios enough to put together anything significant. As for Cotts, I get the feeling that his performance this season -- which hasn't been poor, mind you, just not anywhere close to his 2013 season -- was partly to blame.

As it turns out, the Rangers only ended up moving Jason Frasor and Joakim Soria, with the latter providing an influx of young talent from which the Rangers can attempt to cultivate some wins from in the coming seasons.

No, this year's trade deadline wasn't flashy. If you like flashy, you're probably disappointed right now in comparison to the last few seasons. Such is the life of a non-contender, and for now, it appears that the organization was more than happy to stand pat and see how things transpire moving forward. There's always the August 31 non-waiver deadline, which is how the Rangers acquired Alex Rios last season.

So, I guess you never really know, but I'd venture to guess that the roster as currently constructed is fairly close to the way things will look heading into the offseason. The only potential move that would have significantly helped Texas beyond this season would have been Cliff Lee, but in case you haven't seen yet, he exited his start on Thursday with an elbow injury.

Sure, I think a lot of us would have loved for the Rangers to flip some expiring contracts for more young talent, but in the grand scheme of things, this season has been derailed mainly by injuries. We can argue back and forth all day long about whether or not the Rangers would have been legitimate contenders with the full roster, but there's no way anyone can really tell me that things wouldn't be much more competitive with significantly better luck.

Given that the organization is only just now experiencing real signs of failure after a period of unprecedented success, I'm content trusting that Jon Daniels and the rest of the front office have a plan, and will continue along that path, even if the end result isn't a World Series appearance by next season. Sure, that's the goal, but isn't it better to have a consistently competitive team that has multiple chances to win a championship as opposed to building the roster one season at a time? There may be organizations out there that disagree, but on the whole, building a consistent contender is the name of the game, and even after an uneventful deadline, I'm OK with where things stand concerning the future of the Texas Rangers.